WildWords
is the Combination Deluxe Pizza of word games. It offers the richest
plate of possibilities, decisions, and consequences. No word game has
ever been so friendly to all words and so open to your imagination.

That same old, same old Scrabble (or Words With Friends) play of one
high point letter and a few other tiles is a bottom-feeder in
WildWords. And memorizing lists of silly short words offers no
significant advantage. WildWords is not driven by low expectations.
There are big fish to fry.

The focus in WildWords is
on high-scoring plays that use all seven tiles to form words with seven
or even seventeen letters. You'll play words never seen on a Scrabble
board in over a billion games. Even beginners do it. New tiles, board
squares, and rules have changed the dynamics for every turn and skill
level.

I put WildWords together for family purposes. I did not start with
grand intentions. My goal was simply to level the playing field with
nieces and nephews who won games aided by official Scrabble words like
QAT or ZA or MM. (Curiously, Official Scrabble does not allow the
two-letter word that, for me, best describes this phenomenon--BS.)

So I set out to change things. A new tile distribution with a dozen
wild tiles and a new board layout with turn-to-wild squares came first.
Then, I awoke one morning at 5 AM with a sense of urgency and the idea
that "wild" should mean any sequence of one or more letters and not
just a single letter. I admit it sounded weird. But unexplainable
inspirations are often more valuable than thoughtful analysis. (Didn't
a guy write a best-seller about that?)

So
we played and began learning the game. What emerged was a completely
new and unexpected world of word play. WildWords brought out new
dimensions of strategy and gamesmanship. And it completely rewrote the
book of words played with plenty of thrills, challenging situations,
and good laughs along the way.

Our annual family championship had always been a decent event, but
playing WildWords instead was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. My
brother, who wouldn't know whether to kiss a jo (Scottish sweatheart)
or an ai (three-toed sloth), won the tournament for the first time.
Mission (and so much more) accomplished!

Don't get me wrong. Scrabble is an OK but very limited word game. The
notion that it builds or exercises a useful vocabulary after childhood
is, however, folklore. Scrabble's flaws became obvious when players
started taking it seriously. They could not win with normal English and
masterful tactics as Scrabble excludes most words and is not that
subtle. So they started learning hundreds (then thousands) of new
official words--all short and mostly gibberish. If you want to play to
win, you must match your opponent's hours of joyless and useless
memorization. Where's the game in that?

Of course, you could also switch to a game with more desirable game
qualities. You get better at WildWords by the pleasurable experience of
playing it. The wild concept introduces an incredible amount of
gaminess beyond Scrabble's anagramming. With AMNINS* as your tray, you
could play AN*NISM for antidisestablishmentarianism--the longest word
in English when I was a kid. But you don't need a word like that.
WildWords includes your complete preexisting vocabulary in theory andin practice.
That's tons and tons of words you know but can never use in Scrabble.

WildWords was a freak yet wonderful discovery. As the caretaker of this
serendipity, I felt a responsibility to share it outside of my own
family. I have done my best to produce a quality product--the tiles and
trays are fabulous. And I did try to keep the price as low as possible
while targeting break-even, but it has risen a lot over the years. You
can easily join over 5,000 families who have made the switch from
Scrabble. The adventure begins on the order page.

2
to 4 letter words account for 75% of the words formed. (This
is worse than I thought.)

The
average Scrabble play adds 3.3 letters to the board.

"Watch
them jump" is 4.3 letters per word (i.e., the connecting letter
included).

For
every seven tile play in Scrabble, 12.5 short words are played (by
experts).

Seven
tile plays in Scrabble aren't even long words:LOANERS, SANDIEST.

The
game has very limited overlap with a normal or useful vocabulary.

There
is too much word déjà vu for regular players--especially
with a J, Q, X, and Z.

Strategy,
in general, is formulaic with many turns leading to your "first
impression" play.

A
typical game is 30 total turns which can become tedious when the board
gets blocked up.

To
be competitive, you need to memorize "official dictionary" words from AALtoZUZ.

For
most of us, it's largely an exercise of our preteen vocabulary.

The
game encourages the wrong stuff.

Note: The average length, median length,
and most common length of a word in a reference dictionary are all
around 9 letters. "Strengths" is one syllable yet realistically too
long for Scrabble with 9 letters.

To
WildWords:

Enjoying
The Wilder-ness
Of WildWords.

Seven
tile plays are frequent (75% for good players) and often involve words
10 to 14 letters long.

Even
shorter plays can be more interesting words:EQ*XforEQUINOX, P*ZforPIZZAZZ.

There
is always something to think about. Imaginations run wild.

The
well-disguised bluff adds a twist of poker to some plays.

JUX*ION for JUXTAPOSITION, T*Q*ZER for TRANQUILIZER--even high point
letters lead to a wide variety of words.

Strategy
is a much bigger part of the game and can trump a better vocabulary.

A
typical game is 18 total turns so every play merits attention. It's
impossible to deaden the board.

Many
games are memorable--amazing plays, comebacks, stupid losses too.

Every
game is fresh with new circumstances, new words, and something learned.

You
are often surprised by the words you know but have never used.

The
game encourages attention to colorful words in conversation and in
print.

TheBottomLine:More
Words.More
Game.More
Fun.And,No
Homework.

The
Details: A dozen wild tiles can represent any sequence of one
or more letters. They have no point value but they sure help in finding
7-tile plays. 20 yellow turn-to-wild squares (about 8 get used) convert
(flip) regular tiles into wild tiles and add the opportunity to use an
awkward tile for something better. Wild tile functionality and
turn-to-wild squares are part and parcel of a game of WildWords.
Neither the tile nor the square nor the wildness rule exists in
Scrabble, so there is no way in Scrabble to think bigger or better than
the letters in your tray.

It is not necessary to consider previous plays. Use a wild tile or
converted tile already on the board for a new purpose in your play. You
just have to defend what you play, when you play it, and only if your
opponent risks a challenge. A timely bluff is a part of WildWords. The
scoring system is similar to Scrabble with bonus squares. However, the
40 point bonus for 7-tile plays is a major factor in winning games.
Four penalty squares diminish the advantage of going first. You may
dump all (not some) of your tiles in the bag, mix, and draw a complete
fresh set at the start of your turn without losing the turn. That also
makes for interesting decisions leading to moments of joy and regret.

Game Play: To provide a taste of WildWords,
I took five turns making a first play on the board. From in-store demos
I have learned that people often make assumptions about WildWords that
are completely wrong. The experiment was done once. I drew randomly
with no fudging of any kind. I gave myself around a minute and a half
to take the turn. Mind you, I have played the game many times and
consider myself a good player. Here's what happened.

Tray
1:

I always
look first for a seven tile play. I suspected I would not find one
without placing the M, F, or B on a turn-to-wild square and using it
for other letters. In a seven tile opening play, you can shift the
start of your play to place one of the first two tiles or last two
tiles on such a square. You will, however, also cover a 20 point
penalty square. (That's why playing first isn't such a big advantage.)
In terms of mechanics, I started by turning over the F in my tray and
shuffling my tiles to see what that might lead to. I cannot easily
imagine words with an F used for a series of other letters without
turning the F upside down in my tray. I did the same thing with the M
and B. A common sense approach is needed to play WildWords. It's not
all brilliant inspiration!

Play
1:

The word I
came up with was BEFRIENDED. The M was placed on a
turn-to-wild square. The blank side is turned up, and the tile may be
used like a wild tile. The result was 46 points including the 40 point
bonus for using all seven tiles and the minus 20 for covering the
penalty square.

Tray
2:

Again, I
looked for help from the board to flip a tile. Probably an A.

Play
2:

My word was
MAXIMIZES. The X is on a double letter. It's not
just about using seven tiles. It's about getting the most out of them
as well. The total score was 58 points. BTW, spotting possible words
for an opponent's play is a skill that develops quickly but never
achieves perfection. And challenging requires considering the current
score and the value of the play. Risk factors and player personalities
are part of the game.

Tray
3:

This tray
was clearly short on vowels. I looked for consonants that can follow
each other--GR, CR. WR led me to my play.

Play
3:

Checking
later, I discovered that GUTWRENCHING is not a single
word. It needs a hyphen. I would have lost my turn had I been
challenged. That decision, however, might have been a bit gut-wrenching
for my opponent to make. The play was 48 points or perhaps zero in a
real game.

Tray
4:

The Y
seemed problematic to me.

Play
4:

CHAMPIONED
was worth 40 points. Finding plays is often about recognizing series of
letters that commonly occur like IONED and then
searching for a word that has them. It is important to use up a maximum
number tiles to insure you draw your share of wild ones. That's another
factor that discourages making plays using just a few tiles.

Tray
5:

I exercised
the unpenalized (once per turn) trade-all-tiles option as this was a
crummy tray. I later realized I could have played UNGUARDED
to use all seven tiles. One A would have been put on a turn-to-wild
square to make it wild--UNGUA*D. A tray is often better than it first
appears. You have to avoid making snap judgements based on a Scrabble
mindset.

Replacement
Tray:

Play
5:

BREAKER
was worth 78 points. No board help was needed.

All my
opening plays used all seven tiles which might include a bit of luck
but not much. The average score was 54 points. The average length of a
word was 9.6 letters though one word was not a word. That happens. Were
my plays the best that could be made? Certainly not. WildWords rarely
offers obvious choices. There's a learning curve that rises sharply at
first but never ends.

I would
have enjoyed fudging trays and boards to recreate some of my proudest
moments like DISCOMBOBULATING (D*BOBU*G) which
covered a triple and double word square for 162 points. But that isn't
my run-of-the-mill turn and wouldn't be a fair representation of
typical. [BTW, the box for my Scrabble set shows the play of the
word CHALLENGING. I suspect a
Scrabble board is more likely to be hit by an asteroid than have that
word played upon it!] While my experiment merely scratches the
surface of WildWords, I do believe it demonstrates that the vocabulary
of WildWords separates it from every other word tile game in the
marketplace. The realistic incorporation of complete English is a
revolution in word play albeit a quiet one for now.

You are
welcome to download theFree PC Version and start gaining
experience at finding great plays yourself. It's really quite amusing
and satisfying as you get better at it. And it is not a crime to make a
five or six tile play of a nine letter word. That's still more
interesting than Scrabble! You can also try the link below to some
puzzles for your browser.

NEWS FLASH (2/9/2018):
About a week ago, my brother and I changed our look-up procedure to
determine what was a word. Previously, we had used Merriam Webster's
online dictionary. The new procedure consisted of typing the word into
Google. If a search returned the word in lower case with a definition
at some site claiming to be an English dictionary, the word was deemed
to be good. We were tired of words we considered to be legitimate not
turning up in M/W. Here's what happened in the very next game.

A vertical play of PAJAM*S (pajamas) had been sitting on the board for
some time with the S just above a triple word score. On the last play
of the game an "*" was put beneath it and a seven tile play was formed
starting with that asterisk. Both words being tripled, plus the seven
tile bonus, plus the penalty for tiles held by the other player
resulted in 176 points. The vertical word (PAJAM*S*) was given as
"pajamaless." It was not in M/W, but multiple other dictionaries online
defined it as "without pajamas." It was a game changing play that would
have failed under the rules we used the previous day.

You have to love the opportunity to build on existing plays by redefining the letters represented by an already played asterisk!

I was watching CNN shortly after inventing WildWords, and Andrea Koppel
used the expression "scared the living bejesus out of them." I thought,
"great word, I wonder how you spell it?" My wish was a J and a Z. I
looked it up, and an alternate spelling was indeed "bejeezus." The very
next day I made the play *JEEZ** with the help of a turn-to-wild square
and an asterisk tile already on the board. It drew the challenge I was
hoping for.

If
I had not known the spelling of bejeezus with certainty, I would have
said my word out loud in a ploy to discourage a challenge. With this
technique, you can succeed with words you are not sure how to spell if
you are sure the play conforms to the correct spelling. How many people
with a baccalaureate could spell the degree they hold? I just looked it
up, but I wouldn't have hesitated to play BAC*ATE and announce it. I
don't think an opponent would challenge me to see if I really knew the
full spelling.

In
the same vein, an opponent may spot a legitimate word for what was laid
down as a bluff. The post game discussion of unclear plays and
situations often brings undercurrents to light and can be quite
amusing. There is always a certain amount of "Spy vs. Spy" type
thinking that goes on in our family's games. The level of uncertainty
in WildWords gives weak spellers (like myself and many others) a break.

You
can, of course, choose to:

1)
play by the official rules (no mandatory announcements ),
2) oblige players to announce their words when played, or
3) force players to announce and spell their words when played.

With children I would make the rule that the child can survive a
challenge if s/he can say the word, and the play does indeed correspond
to the proper spelling. In other words, V*QUIST is OK for ventriloquist
even if the child spells it VENTRILAQUIST. V*QUEST is not OK no matter
what spelling the child offers. This will encourage children to learn
and play longer words.

Note: I
have seen eight-year olds grasp the game well, but I put "12 and up" on
the box to be safe.

The
Opinions Of Others:

I don't know
any of the people whose reviews or comments are included below.
Some seem to emphasize the more words
aspect. Some seem to emphasize the more
game aspect.
Either way they find more fun.

"I think that if this game was
first, and Scrabble were recently invented and marketed as a 'better
WildWords' - that most people would probably just laugh it off."

"A wonderful word game! It is
similar to Scrabble, but I much prefer Wildwords to Scrabble. The wild
tiles and spots open up this game in a way that can just not happen in
Scrabble."

"OK. I do not like Scrabble. I
love word games. But these ... changes make the game so much more fun
and accessible."

"My friends who love crossword
puzzles love this game leaps and bounds more than they like Scrabble."

"This is way more fun in teams!
You can tell your partner your insidious plan that you can't work out,
and she can give you something that fits it, and vice versa. Ah, the
satisfaction of playing F*Q*Y, and getting a unanimous challenge from
every opponent. (FreQuencY was the play)."

"I think Scrabble is more for
knitters and stamp collectors. WildWords is more for bungee jumpers and
skydivers."

Emails from owners with different perspectives:

"My friend gave me WildWords for my
birthday, and I must tell you that I love it. As a tournament Scrabble
player, I can tell you that I am very picky about variants of our
crossword game, but this one is well designed. Kudos!"

"Scrabble, schmabble ...

"Thanks for all you have done to make my life way more exciting with
long interesting creative words on this board and thinking way outside
the box to win. Finally a game where poets and wild thinkers can win,
rather than spreadsheet-oriented rule-followers!"

"I
adore this game! I'm a pretty serious Scrabbler--not tournament level,
but I love the game and take it a mite too seriously. This is a
different game entirely. Double and triple words matter, but the real
challenge and joy to this game is using all of your tiles. A good
player can do this quite often with creative asterisk usage and
judicious use of the "tile trade-in" rule. Plus, none of my friends
will play Scrabble with me anymore, but they'll try this game.
Sometimes they even win!" (comment found at YouTube).

"My Mum is a Scrabble addict and
adapted to the game quite well. Hopefully I can transform our
Scrabble-addicted family to a WildWords-addicted family by next
Christmas. I HATE Scrabble and loved this new game for its flexibility."

"It works remarkably well in
German but in an ideal world the distribution of letters would be
slightly different (of course). The English version is just great &
brings out a mischievous streak in people ;-).

"So congratulations on what we think is a brilliant game and much more
fun than Scrabble. Hope the game really takes off for you. And thanks
again... I'm sure we'll have many many more nights of verbal creativity
& laughter with this."

"One thing we like - it's really a crap
shoot, and our games are sometimes very close, while other times one of
us just slaughters the other. I'm inclined to "bomb" every play I
possibly can, where her strategy is denser."

"I
wanted to let you know that I purchased WildWords a few months ago.
Since that time I have fallen in love with this game! ... I appreciate
your work in producing this game. Wild Words is always a joy to play.
Thank you for your efforts. "

You
don't have to be a genius or wordsmith to enjoy the freedom of
WildWords any more than you have to be a race car driver to enjoy
driving a Lamborghini around the block. No matter what, it's fun to
play more interesting words.

For the Super Competitive:

If you
are worried WildWords could not work in the context of a highly
competitive and intellectual environment, you are completely
wrong. The game offers its experts incredible depth.And when you add a chess
clock and the pressure of time, well, bring your best deod*nt and
possibly d*pers.

For Tournament Scrabble Players:

I once held a
contest to develop a catchy slogan that would speak to you in the
familiar terms of your own language. The winning entry:

"Come one, come all, faqirs and qaids, vavasors and chalutzim, soucars
and judokas, kabakas and kamaainas. An oe of flux is shaking the
Scrabble aalii, so put that quaich of kvass in its zarf, scrape
together your sous, zaires, xu or prutah, put on your zoris or chukkas,
and climb in your troika, caique, bidarka or quadriga and make like a
jehu (not an ai) to your closest souk to buy WildWords!"

For Word and Game Haters:

I
suppose WildWords could end up a novelty item from the early 21st
Century that your descendants might take to a future episode of
Antiques Roadshow.

MISC*S

Foreign Languages: Because of the 12 wild tiles,
turn-to-wild squares, six spare tiles and the emphasis on seven tile
plays, WildWords can be played in French, German, Spanish, and other
Roman languages quite reasonably.

Using a Scrabble Deluxe Set: It is possible to take advantage of your
Scrabble Deluxe plastic grid and rotating base when playing WildWords.
Color printer, scissors, and scotch tape required. WildWords tiles will
fit the grid, and a printable paper board can be taped to the back of
the Scrabble insert board for convenient flipping. This option is free
to WildWords owners. Contact me for info on how to print such a board.

Comments, Feedback, Great Marketing Ideas, Questions?

Whatever
your comments, they are always welcomed and answered. Please remember
your spam blocker could block a response. Responses will come from roizen@ix.netcom.com You may also use that
address to send email.peter@wildwords.us

Go
to the "More Game Info" page for examples, tips, etc.
The "Download Page" has a free 2-player or practice
Internet version for a PC.